


cold air, warm ghosts

by Trilies



Series: Sevenfold [4]
Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gods & Goddesses, F/M, Festivals, Fictional Religious Holiday, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-22
Updated: 2020-06-22
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:54:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24858700
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Trilies/pseuds/Trilies
Summary: Humans speak how the goddess of death and her familiars visit down upon the earth once every year... but they probably don't expect it to actually happen. She only means to visit for a little while, honestly... and enjoy herself, along with her black-haired, black-feathered companion.
Relationships: Chrome Dokuro/Kakimoto Chikusa
Series: Sevenfold [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/672338
Comments: 4
Kudos: 7
Collections: KHR Rare Pair Week 2020





	cold air, warm ghosts

__

_Once every year, the Goddess of Foam and Fate takes her retinue down to the mortal plains.  
She brings with her the two guardians of the dead, her raven and her wolf  
As well as her mirror image, he of Pain and Pestilence.  
It is a checking of the harvest  
A glimpse to the souls of earth which are still developing  
And will soon return to her gentle hands and warm embrace to be strung along for the next life.  
  
For those souls which have lived a kind and pure life  
One that has done only good and lived with well wishes towards their fellow humans  
Our good Goddess rewards them with small gifts that may brighten their short lives if but a moment  
And for those who are heading down towards the wrong path  
Her compatriots nip at their exposed feet in the night  
To guide them back to a path of righteousness.  
  
On this day, and the night which follows it  
We thank our beloved Goddess  
And pray that she treats us kindly in that which follows this life._  
  
  
  
  
  
"...Which sounds... like far too much, and all of it wrong."  
  
Chrome tilts her head to the side as she and Chikusa make their way through the mortal world, considering his statement. "Ah... It's definitely spun out of control than the first time I spoke to that priestess..." Back then, she had simply followed Tsuna's example when she had made the decision to inform a priest of her arrival on earth. All she had meant to do was ensure that no one started to panic if she happened to materialize, or something happened with any of her companions. Yet it's a peculiar game that's taken place down in the mortal realm. The prophecy hopped from person to person, changing a little bit with every exchange, and now.... this. A holiday, made just for her.  
  
It's quite a strange turn of events, honestly. Perhaps if she had acted earlier, she could have prevented it from becoming such a needlessly big deal. Yet the mortal world moves so quickly, sometimes. She hadn't thought it would be a big deal, and yet she had simply blinked and their world had changed so much. Maybe the mortal world moves even quicker for gods who don't check in on it so much, like she does, as a god of the dead.  
  
Regardless, she's not that bothered about it. Instead, she looks over to Chikusa. The two of them could appear at their destination in a heartbeat... but there's something nice about the two of them taking their time, pretending to just be walking along the path to one of many large cities which populates the land. "I don't mind it," she says. Even if it's spiraled out of control from her original intentions, Chrome has decided that she rather likes humans. That her domain involves their death doesn't really mean anything. Someone has to watch over them, when they finish this cycle of life, and that someone simply happened to end up her. "What about Chikusa?"  
  
Chrome can view things only from the view of a god, after all. She is the god born from Desire's own longing and scheming, whether that was Mammon themself or the desires of humans who were longing for an answer to a question they nurtured in their fear. But Chikusa, just like Ken, is different than her. In this moment, they look alike, of course. In this moment, anyone else looking upon them with eyes blinded to the forces of the divine and supernatural would only see a pair of humans traveling.  
  
They would see her, with her one eye hidden behind a simply patterned eyepatch, and her hair pulled back into a messy little bun, and the purple of deep Desire draped across her shoulders.  
  
They would see him, with dull eyes hidden underneath a bandana that keeps his hair firmly held in place around his dull expression, and his height that seems all the more because of how skinny he is, and his soft lips.  
  
No one would know that she is the god who this day is celebrated to, and no one would ever think to imagine this gangly man to have once been such a tiny little creature as a raven. That he is wearing a long cloak of black feathers doesn't mean anything, really, not on this day. Chrome isn't sure when it started, but humans start to favor things such as feathered or furred cloaks. It would be a problem if they were to recklessly slaughter animals, but she hasn't seen too much of that. Instead, hunters are highly valued where they treat their opponents or prey well, and she's fairly certain she's seen many large cities or distant farms where raising finely feathered birds and gently have their feathers collected as they molt or preen. Perhaps humans understand well what would happen if they treated such creatures carelessly.  
  
Either way, it's believed to help bring in good luck when it comes to her guides to the dead, and incline them to treat such individuals favorably by either not 'guiding death' to them _or_ by treating their souls far more favorably when that moment finally comes. She's never been sure if that's actually true or not... With Ken, she can imagine that he definitely likes the ego trip that gives him by being recognized as 'her faithful companion'.  
  
Chikusa is far more difficult to read, even though it's thanks to her that he continues to live on with a life as her divine beast. That's true when it comes to figuring out how he feels about humans wearing feathered cloaks, or times like now where she's asked him a question and his expression hasn't changed in the slightest. Maybe it's because he is a raven in the end that he doesn't emote much; beaks don't lend well to such things. "Ah.... I guess there are some benefits to it..." He tilts his head to the side, fingers scratching at the back of his neck. "But it can be so noisy..."  
  
"I thought you liked noisy, because you like Ken."  
  
"...It's because I like Ken... that noisy places can be so annoying..." Well, that also makes a lot of sense, and Chrome doesn't question it. Perhaps she could pass that down to the humans as well, to ensure their celebrations are quieter... but that seems like a ridiculous use of effort that might not even click into the place she wants it to. While she's still gathering her thoughts, Chikusa rolls out a sigh and tilts his head back to look up towards the sky. "Well, if this one is too bad... Then we'll just go."  
  
"Mm. I guess we could." Chrome agrees on that easily enough, although she doubts that there would be any party that would really be too much that it would chase her away. Maybe something run by one of the more energetic gods, or the Arcobaleno, and it could be a problem then... But when it comes to those sort of events, it's usually better to just step out of the way and let someone else be run over in that case. It's usually worked out for her. "But if we stay... Could we enjoy it?"  
  
That makes Chikusa fall silent for a moment, the sky still stretched out over the two of them. It's changing, now, from the brilliant ice blue of a winter's day to a sprawling dusk purple with lingering orange drawing the color in all the deeper. "If you want to enjoy something, you can enjoy it," he says simply. "It's not like I can stop you... Chrome-sama..."  
  
That's not really an answer for 'we', for 'they' - the two of them having a good time together. Chrome lets him get away with that, too. There's no point in forcing honesty, is there? If Chikusa wants to tell her his every feelings, then he will. For now, she accepts this for what it is, and nods. "Mm. I hope it's not too loud, then."  
  
Frankly, the city and all its celebrations _do_ seem to be a little loud, when the two of them finally slip through the outer walls of the city and onto its streets. The road from the outside goes straight through the city, and is the largest of its kind in the entire place. This is mostly for the benefit of merchants, and people delivering things from seaside towns or farming areas... and that fortunately means it also tends to be the place where the most celebrating takes place. All Chrome and Chikusa have to do is keep following it through the city, and, soon enough, the streets begin to get properly crowded.

Honestly, Chrome has found far worse places. When she was still newly born and stepping into her role as a god of the deceased, there were so many souls that had piled up that she nearly drowned herself. This is a far warmer place, when compared to her realm where it is nothing but sea and mist for miles outside of her simple little cavern along a cliffside. Here, there are stalls selling warm drinks to towns people who are daring to go against the cold of winter or travelers who have come from quite a long way to partake in all the festivities. Many more people have set up little areas to the side where they sell various trinkets or gifts, whether it is for parents seeking to reward their children for being good this year or simply to celebrate their god's descent down onto the mortal lands. Closer towards the center of town there are even various stalls set up by the local priests and the devout for those who wish to pray for their deceased loved ones.  
  
Chikusa pauses at one point as the pair of them merely browse everything that the humans have made for this time of year, and Chrome has to backtrack to go find him again. It's one of the toy stalls someone has made, somewhat a little rickety but perhaps because all of the money has clearly gone into the material for the various toys. There are "strings" of fake little plush pearls, which Chrome can't remember seeing the last time she ever bothered to poke about. It's sort of charming... she thinks.  
  
Of more interest to her would be the little toy ravens and wolves that have been lovingly sewn together, and which Chikusa seems frankly bewildered by. Now that she thinks about it, it's probably been even _longer_ for someone as disinterested as him that he's seen this kind of progress from humans. Whenever he gets distracted by human things, after all, it tends to be for their food. Reaching out, she picks up one of the little plush ravens.  
  
"....You didn't look nearly as cute when I first picked you up from the snow," she informs Chikusa.  
  
"I was bleeding to death," Chikusa says bluntly.  
  
Chrome gives a thoughtful nod. "That's probably why..." Putting down a raven, she looks at the disparity between the amount of ravens and the amount of wolves there is to be sold. The plush pearl necklaces are some of the ones that have clearly sold the most... But after that, she does have to admit that the are still a lot more raven plush toys that have been left behind on the stall's surface in comparison to the ones for the wolf.  
  
Well, it's not as if she doesn't know why. She may be a god, one that is born of human desire but is very much not human.... But she still understands humans well enough after having quietly and diligently collected their souls for centuries. Human children are especially easier to understand, not having grown enough to understand the intricacies and complexities of the world around them, let alone what spans beyond what their eyes can see. They like rowdy and excitable things, the fighters, the victors.... and that is what a wolf symbolizes to them, even if his raven partner goes along on the exact same journeys and performs the same duties.  
  
There are only a couple of wolf toys left, so she picks one of them up and pushes it against Chikusa's chest without a word. In turn, automatically, he holds it there and blinks down at it before directing his gaze back up to her. He doesn't say anything either. All he does is stare right back, both of them locked in silence, before it finally occurs to her to explain. "You like Ken, don't you?"  
  
"....Yeah, I guess." That's putting it lightly, and they both know it. Chrome can still remember when she first found the two of them, a lone wolf mourning its avian partner where it bled out along the ground. In her trip across ground all the way to her home of the sea, the wolf had limped and bled after her out of caring. When they had been reborn as her psychopomps, her attendants, it was Ken that Chikusa had first turned to.  
  
But then again, when it comes to Chikusa, it's always the little and subtle things which make up his being.  
  
Chrome focuses on another part of herself for a moment, a part of herself that is not right there besides Chikusa but instead at a temple elsewhere. For all that she doesn't need money for most of her day to day activities, some still leave behind her bits of small change. She manages to gather just enough before she focuses once more on her place besides Chikusa, coin in her hand. Instead of immediately getting the attention of the woman in charge of the stall, however, she picks up one of the many raven plushies. "I like Chikusa," she announces simply, and ignores the befuddled look he gives her.  
  
Instead, she raps her coin against the stall surface, and doesn't much mind the way the woman jolts a little bit as she's suddenly brought into awareness of their existence. It's easy to be ignored, when one is divine. Humans would no doubt be surprised if they realized how often gods, Arcobaleno, spirits, or Varia walk among them with sometimes no fanfare. They all have their different reasons for it, although some of them venture out more than others... but staying quiet is often a keypoint, for lack of interest if sometimes nothing else.  
  
Unless it's Squalo, but that doesn't really count, from what she understands.  
  
Unknowing of all of this, the woman apologizes to her with a friendly smile, and strikes up some idle chatter that doesn't quite work for either Chrome or Chikusa. She doesn't seem to mind the silence, at least, waving them off with a compliment to Chikusa's cloak. The two of them keep moving, wandering through the crowds and closer to the shrine district where things are a little quieter but only comparatively.  
  
Every sufficiently large enough city has a shrine district, these days, and towns or villages that are too small for such work still often have little altars that are well maintained for. Chrome isn't entirely certain how humans all across the land came to a similar consensus on how their shrine areas should be organized... but they all seem to follow the same structure no matter where she's gone on the mortal plane.  
  
The Arcobaleno are all centered in the middle of whatever area has been designated for the divine, not to be worshipped so much as... respected. Humans seem to understand that, for all that the Arcobaleno are the foundation on which the world has been founded, they are not entities whom such fragile creatures as humans want the attention of. They do not feel beholden to humans in the same way that the gods they've spawned might, and their way of looking at the world is even more different than anything else in reality, although every creature that exists has a small fraction of that view inside themselves. Humans seem to have decided that it is best to be safe rather than sorry, and include the Arcobaleno simply to show that they have never forgotten such important entities. Chrome can understand that, she supposes.   
  
Around that small sevenfold are the many gods that have come into existence since reality was born. This is the part which seems to vary the most, from city to city, region to region, which Chrome supposes she's relieved by or else she'd really wonder how humans know so much of their habits across an entire continent. Some humans like to keep things... ordered by family, or roughly so, although even that can be a little bit tricky to do neatly.  
  
For example, she knows that Dino and Tsuna are brothers, of a sort. However, the trouble lies in their origin. Both of them can claim a part of their creation lies within Reborn's essence, sons of Chaos equally. Yet where Tsuna seemed to be born solely from Reborn's capabilities, Dino was a product of both him _and_ a part of the Three- Chrome thinks it might be Luce in particular, although how much that actually means with such a unique existence as hers is something she can't even begin to comprehend.  
  
When it comes to a case like that, where does one put the two? Brothers they may be, but should a human then connect them to the Arcobaleno with whom they both share a connection? Or should Dino be settled alongside his mother, one of Her rare but precious children? That's only the beginning of how things can get complicated and strange. Mukuro is a part of Chrome, born of her innards she pulled out from her own torso and a single eye plucked out of place. In that case, he is also technically Mammon's child... sort of. Yet the Merchant of Desire has made it so obvious that they don't care for him at all that even humans are well aware of the distaste heavy between Arcobaleno and god. So where does a simple human put the shrine to Mukuro, if they don't want to offend Mammon?  
  
Chrome likes noting the differences between human settlements, even if it's all _usually_ inconsequential most of the time. But most of all, she likes how quiet the shrine districts tend to be, and that's especially true for tonight. As the sun sinks further towards the horizon, her and Chikusa finally make it to a small but open area where various seats have been set up in a loose circle in preparation for a show. Most of the people are just the average citizen of the town, waiting and chatting amongst themselves.  
  
A little further away, however, some priests have blocked off a small area, and Chrome walks past them without a single one of them recognizing it. The area is meant for dressing up a small group of people - performers of some sort. She recognizes the costumes they all wear, because many other towns have dressed people up in similar outfits for this holiday. Go far enough from one place, and of course the exact details will be different... But there are always similarities.

There are always at least two men involved, and at least one woman. Sometimes there are three men, and then sometimes there are two women, only one is pretending to be a man. Chrome knows it depends on the town, and who lives in that town, who feels any sort of calling or reason to take up the literal mantle. Either way, there is always meant to be a connection between one half of the group.  
  
Then there are the costumes, and those make it quite obvious just what these performers are meant to represent. The wolf fur that is draped across the shoulders of one man, the other man wearing a cloak of feathers much like one Chikuksa wears right now... And then the soft purple outfits that the last two performers wear, something that really does take a lot of work to acquire with how rare purple ink and dyes can be. They're similar, the outfits meant to represent her and Mukuro... but different in the subtle details. The way a sash is worn. The types of shoes each performer has. The exact shades of purple. It's interesting to her, seeing how differently every town represents her and him.  
  
What's equally as interesting is to see what kind of people volunteer for these roles. Often, it is those who are quite familiar with her domain, who have experienced the loss intrinsic to death, or seen it first hand. She is not exactly a god of _death_ , no, but she is certainly the one who is there to patiently clean up what is left behind, and guide it to where it needs to go.  
  
Those who seek to take part in these ceremonies, these performances, often understand that best, she's found. Chrome thinks she likes that.  
  
It's an interesting group of humans who've taken up the roles for this town, this year, but then it always is. The one who is taking up Ken's role is a man much taller than he is, a wild pink mane of hair falling around his shoulders and squashed underneath the hood of his heavy furry cloak. He still has a bright and toothy grin as Ken, however, so Chrome thinks he fits the role quite well. Mukuro's spot is taken by a woman almost as tall as her companion, who could be his sister with how brown her skin is and the brilliant pink of her own extremely short hair. She seems to be just as excited and playful as he is, which doesn't fit the spirit of the role, but... Well, Chrome won't question why she felt drawn to it.  
  
That leaves the two who have taken up the roles for Chikusa and, well, herself. The former is an awkwardly lanky young individual who is nearly as white as a pearl, with short choppy purple hair and brilliant red eyes, fiddling with their cloak of feathers as though to distract themself from the crowd of people that are waiting to see the performance they will be a key role in. They're not nearly as tall as Chikusa is, but they're tall enough, and something about the bags underneath his eyes reminds her of her raven companion well enough.  
  
For herself, it is a young woman who is quite short, but with the same brown skin as two of her cohorts. Her hair is also short, sand blond hair curling thickly around her face. What is most interesting to Chrome, however... is a single deep blue eye residing on one half of the woman's face. On the other, hidden behind the costume's eyepatch... Chrome can see a good deal of burn scars spread out along her skin, covering no small portion of that side of her head.  
  
"She seems to be a good one," Chrome decides, watching as the woman begins to give a small pep talk to her companions just as much as it seems she's bossing all three of them around. In terms of personality, they're nothing alike either, but she can sense that base Desire within this person. In terms of that alone, no one better could have been chosen. "What about yours, Chikusa...?"  
  
Unlike her, Chikusa has hung back some more, and it amuses her to see that he is instead looking over the performer for Ken instead. It takes him a second for him to respond to her, slowly turning his head to glance back to who she's referring to. "....It may not look it... but I think there's a connection there, too. So it's... probably fine."  
  
The selection must have been done quite carefully, if there's even a performer who matches Chikusa. Every single bit of the world has a little bit of every one of the Arcobaleno within them... but some aspects are so minuscule as to not count in certain entities, while incredibly prevalent in others. For humans, it can be quite a mixed bag. Chrome isn't entirely sure why _they_ care so much, but they seem to take no small amount of pride or interest in just how much of a particular aspect is within them. They've even taken to giving them names, although what exactly the names are seems to be one of those things that vary from place to place. Chrome thinks that Verde might have had a hand in nudging them along the way to figuring out just what is within them... or at least the strongest part.  
  
In a lot of ceremonial or traditional dances like this, it seems to mean quite a lot to humans for them to do their absolute best to find a performer who has the same type as whoever it is they're dedicating their performance to. Chrome doesn't really get it... but whatever makes them happy, and as long as it doesn't drive more work into her hands.  
  
"They like her," Chikusa notes suddenly, and Chrome blinks her way out of her own thoughts to look back to the performers who are waiting for their time. His gaze is focused purely on the performer in the raven cloak, and the person who is to represent Chrome. She's not entirely sure how _Chikusa_ can tell, with how disinterested he often seems to be in the world at large including all of its inhabitants...  
  
But he's not wrong. Chrome's domain is that of the dead, but her essence is that of Desire. That means, even if it's not something that's necessarily any of her business or even something that she cares about, she can still sense the faint stirrings of Desire... whatever the form it may take. Just from her watching the two, it seems to be a good enough relationship, and she nods. "That's good for the performance," she says, although there's a moment where she pauses to glance at Chikusa from the corner of her eye.  
  
Dances like these are for the humans' sake and feelings. Some gods like to watch them or appreciate them. Others couldn't care less, except with perhaps some effort. Either way, it doesn't often change much, except to serve as a signal to the divine that the holiday is coming, and that the humans are paying attention to them well enough as they should. Chrome finds them intriguing more than anything else, with the exact strength of such a feeling depending on each individual day.... And yet, for whatever reason, now is the day she thinks to ask Chikusa, "Do you want to dance as well?"  
  
Chikusa stares at her in silence for a long moment, the chatter and distant noise of the street holiday washing over them. That's fine, although perhaps others would not particularly be comfortable with it. All Chrome does is patiently wait for him to make a decision, letting him have all the time he needs to decide on if he wants to bother putting that much effort into something that he doesn't even really _need_ to do. Patience is a key virtue when it comes to dealing with Chikusa... or Ken... or Mukuro... or, really, the vast majority of gods and the Arcobaleno.  
  
Her wait is rewarded just in time, as the performers are all called out to the ceremonial space in the midst of all the shrines, and Chikusa finally gives the slightest of nods. What's more telling than that is the way he follows right behind his human proxy out underneath the night sky's brilliant expanse that's taken over from the sunset. Chrome understands his cue without it needing to be said, following her own not-exactly-double.  
  
Dancing takes a lot of effort for humans to master, although any can engage in it for fun and to make a spectacle of their very own that has a warmth unique to it. Chrome is not a human, however, and neither is Chikusa. Thus, dancing is something they approach very differently, in their own ways... but tonight, those ways have a strong commonality between them.  
  
That commonality would be the very humans who have temporarily stepped into their roles, all to ask for good health and kind treatment in the afterlife.  
  
Maybe humans would consider it a blessing. Chrome just views it as a favor they're unknowingly allowing her, this foreign entity settling against a human body as neatly as any one of the many fine and fluttering scarves she wears. It is nothing so invasive as a full body possession. If anything... It's just her giving a little bit of a boost to such a fragile human body, following the individual along with perhaps an additional _something_.  
  
Chrome cannot dance as a human can. She doesn't understand the complexities of their muscles, the intricacies of thought to muscle, all of the little things that humans work so hard on mastering. When she dances exactly as she is, she is more something strange and shimmering than anything made of bone and flesh, even if the latter is what she appears like. She moves like mist, like foam dissipating on the waves, like something in an eternal state of fading.  
  
What that means _exactly_ for a human is something she isn't entirely sure of. It might be something unique to each person? But this dancer, with her scarred face and petite body... As she begins her portion of the dance, where she will take part in all of it from start to finish as the "main star", Chrome realizes that the pair of them must match incredibly well. Both with her and from without her, Chrome can see how the young woman twists and almost seems to float through the air, flowing through the movements so easily. Her gaze is distant, lost in throwing herself so fully into what is likely a one in a lifetime chance she doesn't even realize she's stumbled upon.  
  
She passes from partner to partner easily enough, and Chrome has to admire them, honestly. They are only human, with no divinity following along with their steps, but both the man with wild hair meant to be Ken and the bold woman who plays Mukuro do finely in their own dancing. The man has a wild energy he throws his all into, beaming so widely and toothily that Chrome feels he might be just as much of a person of Chaos that her Ken is, or, if it is an act, it is one that is absolutely perfect in its energy. The woman too has a certain brazen confidence in the way she sweeps her limbs and body through the air, giving such a proud smirk that Mukuro would likely be satisfied with such a depiction.  
  
And then there is Chikusa and his proxy.  
  
A human can only dance like a human. A god can only dance like a god. So, of course, a raven can only dance like a raven. Yet a raven is even more different than either human or god. Their wings draw them into places that a human can never dream to reach, and that a god will never truly experience. Not in the same way, not with wings working so hard to fight against the pull of gravity and the way wind tugs so ruthlessly at whatever waltzes into its domain.

Humans, landlocked and featherless, will understand this sensation about as well as Chrome herself can. It's impossible to fully translate it into such a body... and yet, through a combination of the dance that the humans have come up with for this holiday and the weightless sensation that must surely be stirring the dancer's heart, something truly beautiful emerges. Smooth leaps, a flared out cloak, and wide gestures with sweeping arms... In many ways, it matches the way Chrome dances, not in how it is alike, but in how they compliment one another.  
  
She twirls, and he twists. She ducks, and he leaps. In no other time would Chikusa be so lively, so full of energy, and yet of course this is the one instance that would make him so. If a bird's dance is the same as their flight, then this too is nothing particularly special to him. Chrome continues to think that, until their dancing draws them and their humans closer together, almost close enough to share breath.  
  
Desire has rolled in amongst the area as they've performed, as soft and gentle as any mist. It is there lingering amongst the audience as they long for a kind and harmless afterlife, and it is every sweep of their performers' feet. In the ones she and Chikusa have attached themselves to, it pulses in their hearts, a desire to draw closer for any sort of sanctuary.  
  
No wonder the humans lose themselves in it. Chrome feels similar, in a way, every time she and Chikusa pull closer in this performance between so many people. There is a climax, instruments rising sharper and higher- and before she knows it, she and Chikusa pull apart from their human companions, and she allows herself to be swept up in his feathers while his lips press briefly into hers.  
  
She's glad for it - more than glad. Glad enough to snugly wrap her arms around his middle, something that even she can do with how bird thin he is. That thinness might not always lend itself well, to intimate moments like this. Ken is far better when it comes to holding each other tight like this, with well muscled arms and a firm body and such warm fur. Chikusa doesn't have any of that, with even his feathers not being the kind of thing one would necessarily want to press up against. But she still likes the way she can hold him like this, in a way that she can't do with Ken or even Mukuro.  
  
At least, she likes it up until Chikusa breaks their kiss, and she begins to feel the very faint weight of a raven leaning down onto her.  
  
Chrome blinks for a moment, feeling the way Chikusa's head slots into the space along her own and her shoulder. It's not really his weight that's a problem for her. After all, even when he takes a form like this, looking so very human, Chikusa in the end is still himself. He's still a raven, even if he is one that has been given immortality in exchange for his service from then to, well, she supposes the end of everything. The only thing that makes this particularly _difficult_ is how tall and lanky he is. Her back begins to bend a little bit from the awkward position, and she pats his spine.  
  
"It's... not easy to move like this... Chikusa."  
  
All he does for a moment is make a mildly annoyed but mostly tired noise. "Dancing like that, possessing a human like that... It's so troublesome. Their bodies are so strange..." Chrome isn't entirely sure what it means that he can still say that despite having had so many years of using a human-like body himself. Or perhaps it's exactly because of that experience which allows him to say it so easily.  
  
Well, regardless. "You're still awkward to hold," she says simply, and patiently waits. While she does so, from the corner of her eye, she watches as the dancers politely bow to their audience before they reconvene to the side, away from the now dispersing crowd. There should have been nothing passed from her or Chikusa into the humans they danced with... That's not how even a possession works, let alone what the two of them had done. Yet even as she watches, she sees the youth in his feathered cloak hastily say something to his eyepatched partner before he leans down to press a hasty and fumbling kiss to her lips. When he pulls away, it's with an air of apology that likely matches the movement of his lips, but the young woman just smirks and takes him by the arm before they disappear back to the small dressing area for all of the dancers.  
  
It makes her smile, just a little, before Chikusa finally forces the full extent of what little weight he possesses to stand up on his own two feet. Honestly, while he says everything made him tired, Chrome is hard pressed to say he looks any less or more tired than how he did before. "...There's still work to do which means we can't go back.... right?"  
  
Still holding onto a simple raven plush in her hand, Chrome reaches up with the other one to slide her palm against Chikusa's face in order to pull him down while she stands on the tips of her toes. Like this, it's far easier for her to press her lips against his other cheek. "Mm," she murmurs, a small little answer that she knows he'll still pick up on. Chikusa may be quiet, and doesn't like lots of movement or sweat... but he understands her and all the others that reside in her domain almost better than anything else. He cares for them just as much, too, although she knows he's a bit more subtle than someone like Ken.  
  
After all, he still hasn't let go of the dog plush.  
  
"We'll just get them done," she says simply. This is enough to satisfy her, for the time being. Just this one venture with no real purpose into a small human town, one small dance with Chikusa, is more than enough for her. Adjusting her own little crow toy in her arms, she tilts her head to the side. "Let's go, Chikusa."  
  
Sometimes, she thinks he likes it when she takes charge. Perhaps it's just something about having once been an animal. Perhaps it's just less work for him. Either way, he seems to stir even more, straightening up to his feel height and raising one arm with his cloak clinging to it. "Whatever you want... Chrome-sama."  
  
And with a sweep of his wings, pitch black feathers fluttering through the air, he takes her away.

**Author's Note:**

> frantically posts this before work
> 
> EDIT: THIS AUTHOR'S NOTE IS ALSO WHY THANKS MUST BE GIVEN TO ONCEABLUEMOON BECAUSE WHOOPS SOMETIMES WHEN YOU ARE FRANTICALLY TRANSFERRING FIC, YOU DOUBLE COPYPASTE SOMETHING


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